On The History of Ugliness

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Description

In “History of Beauty,” Umberto Eco explored the ways in which notions of attractiveness shift from culture to culture and era to era. With ON UGLINESS, a collection of images and written excerpts from ancient times to the present, he asks: Is repulsiveness, too, in the eye of the beholder? And what do we learn about that beholder when we delve into his aversions? Selecting stark visual images of gore, deformity, moral turpitude and malice, and quotations from sources ranging from Plato to radical feminists, Eco unfurls a taxonomy of ugliness. As gross-out contests go, it’s both absorbing and highbrow.

I have read and studied his books as much on ugliness as on beauty. I have used them in my lectures on the symbolic and diabolic of aesthetics in human culture. It is an excellent experience seeing him explain his own interpretation with the slides displayed. I regret I could not download it with his speech.William

I am a fan of Umberto Eco, all of his books are incredible, however, this lecture is one of the best lectures I have ever watched. Eco articulates himself brilliantly here and I would love to see more of these lectures.